Holidays Across Gielinor
by Aquarius142
Summary: A collection of stories based on the holiday events that happen within Gielinor. Main characters may vary story to story, depending on who fits the event the best.


'_Twas a few days before Christmas,_

_And Gielinor was all set astir_

_ As all knew Santa's yearly trip would soon occur._

_But not all around were filled with such cheer,_

_For not everyone holds the same feelings this time of year._

"Why so ba humbug?" said Calin, sitting down beside Fayne at the roaring bonfire. The fire melted all of the snow around it and kept the cold at bay. The soldiers all around chatted cheerily as the holidays drew near and most of them would be headed back to their families for a few days.

Fayne shrugged as she watched the flames lick at the logs on the fire. "There just isn't too much to be merry about right now."

"How so? It's almost Christmas and the new year is right around the corner," he said. "It's the merriest time of the year."

"But have you seen what's been happening? Asgarnia is being ravaged by another set of gods, what's there to be merry about when those war caravans traveling everywhere. It's a mess. I'm surprised that Falador hasn't been completely torn apart yet."

"The Bird and the Beast seem to be a little tamer than Saradomin and Zamorak were during the Battle of Lumbridge, though the fighting seems to be much more wide spread. But we'll survive this, just like we've done here with the trolls," he said. His rich hazel eyes scanned the mountains to the north, where Death Plateau lay. "It's good that the trolls have quieted down for the season, so that all of the men can take a short break and enjoy the holidays."

"But do you see what I mean?" she said. "Things aren't well in the world, and I can't seem to do anything to stop it." She sighed. "Let everyone else be merry, let them forget the troubles of the world, even if just for a little bit."

"Why can't you have that?" asked Calin, but didn't give Fayne a moment to answer. "Yes, you've become the World Guardian, and that is a serious task that you have been given, but if you don't give yourself a break it'll kill you. You're no good to the world if you work yourself to death." He then leaned over and rummaged through his bag that sat beside him. He pulled out a parchment envelope and held it out to her. "Besides, you have this."

Her brows furrowed. "What's this?" She took it from his grasp and ripped it open. It contained a single page letter. She quickly scanned the neat scrawl across the page. "And invitation to a Christmas gathering from Xandria? How long have you had this?"

Calin shrugged. "Only since this morning. You can be a tough one to find. But this sounds like just the thing you need to take your mind off of everything that's going on."

"Wait…you opened my letter…and resealed it?"

Calin gave her a coy shrug. "What matters is you now have a reason to relax. You need this, and getting to Lumbridge in time will be easy enough. I'm sure one of the battlemages will be more than willing to help."

"I…I don't know, Calin," said Fayne, looking back over the letter. "She makes it sound like everyone's going to be there; Alyson, Liam, Elias… I just don't know all of them well enough; I wasn't there with them when they went off on that adventure of theirs. I don't think that I'd feel comfortable enough to go."

"Then why don't I go with you?" offered Calin.

The elf looked over to him, surprised. "Really?"

He shrugged. "Why not? I've nothing better to do," he said. "I have nowhere else to go for the holidays, and getting away from this war camp will do me good as well. Besides, it's not like there will be any celebrations going on here, only Commander Denulth and his midnight rounds." Just the mention of it gave him shivers.

She nodded, smiling a bit. "Alright then, I guess we'll go and we should probably get going now. By the looks of the letter, the festivities have probably already started and we need to get ready. We will also need to find one of the mages that can teleport us to Lumbridge."

With that, they quickly went their separate ways, each going to their own tents to get appropriate travel gear for their trip. It took them only a short while to find one of the battlemages that could teleport them.

"Ready?" the wizard asked as he quickly gathered up the runes he'd need for the spell. When the two of them nodded, he added, "Well, ladies first." Fayne stepped forward. The runes in the wizard's hands disintegrated as the spell was cast and she was teleported away.

Snow crunched beneath Fayne's feet as she landed in Lumbridge. The air was crisp and caused her to pull her deep green cloak tighter around her shoulders. She stepped out from the snow, onto the cobblestone path that led up to Lumbridge Castle. She took the few moments to take a good look around as she waited for Calin. She was thankful to see that in the months since the devastation that came in the hands of Saradomin and Zamorak that much had been rebuilt. A small smile touched her lips as she was proud to see that people of Lumbridge wouldn't just take what had happened to them.

"Now, only to rebuild Edgeville," she said softly to herself with a sigh.

Behind her, she could hear a muffled _thud_. She turned to see Calin begin pulling himself out of a large snow pile.

"I swear that they always do that to me," he said, standing and brushing all of the snow off.

"What? Teleporting you into snow piles?"

"Snow piles, rivers, pig pens, cow pastures," he said, shaking his head. "I swear that those wizards have something against me."

She laughed with him as they made their way around the castle towards the crater battlefield. She was glad to see that the buildings closer to the crater were also fixed up, maybe even in better shape than they were before. It didn't take them long to finally come to the crater's edge.

They stood over the now snow filled crater, and while Fayne had seen the battlefield completely deserted, it was now filled with what she assumed to be Xandria's Christmas gathering.

"It's strange to see the crater like this," said Fayne, "so void of all the violence. For two and a half months this place attracted so many people, so many warriors, and, in one day, this place was basically abandoned." She sighed, shaking her head. "Why would Xandria picked such a place like this for a Christmas gathering?"

"I'm sure that those from Lumbridge appreciate it," said Calin as they turned back and started down into the crater. "The people around here will certainly want to move on from the terrible things that happened here, which is what Xandria was probably thinking when she decided to come here. And what better to move on with than such a beautifully done festival."

The two travelers stepped into the crater and were able to see better the full extent of the celebration that Xandria had pulled together. On the far side of the crater, closest to the old Saradomin camp, stood three long tables. One held a beautiful feast of all the holiday favorites- turkey, roast potatoes, mulled wine, Christmas pudding, and yule logs. Another long table was lined with wizards from the Tower and the Guild, along with a few other of their colleagues.

"What's that?" asked Calin.

"The Wizards' Banquet," said Fayne as they started down the wooden ramps. "Nadira says they hold one every year at this time. Kind of a way to get together and show off what they've done over the year, as she put it."

As they walked into the area, they could see a large fenced off section that had several reindeers roaming around and munching on carrots that were scattered around their pen.

"She really has gone all out on this," said Fayne, very impressed.

Xandria stood just beside the grand tree that stood by the center of all the festivities, talking to the jolly man himself. But the two new comers caught her eye, and she smiled widely. She excused herself from Santa to come over to Fayne and Calin. "Fayne, I'm so glad that you've made it. I hadn't gotten word from you, so I wasn't sure if you'd come," she said, beaming the entire time. She hugged her friend before turning her attention to the other. "And you must be Calin."

"Ah, Fayne must have told you all about me during your correspondences," he said, giving Xandria a smile.

"Actually I have done a good amount of traveling in that area and have gotten to know Commander Denulth. It was through him that I heard that you had run into some trouble with the trolls some time ago," said Xandria. "It's lucky that you had Fayne come in for you."

Calin sighed, but let the subject drop as he realized that the two women were teasing him. Instead, he took a glance around the crater. "You have a pretty good set up here."

Xandria nodded, clearly taking pride in everything that had been done. "It took some planning and a lot of work, but it really all came together. Not that I can take full credit. Many of those from Lumbridge were more than happy to help, anything to make this place less grim." She cast a glance around the crater, smiling. "How about I show you around?" Before either Fayne or Calin could answer, she started off through the space.

Fayne sat on the fence, watching as everyone took part of a massive snowball fight. A young reindeer had become fond of the elf and stood nearby, though the bucket of carrots at her feet also seemed to help. She rubbed the soft fur between the ears as the reindeer crunched down another carrot.

"Any reason why you aren't among those snow banks with everyone else?"

Fayne turned and found Nadira standing only a few feet away. She smiled at her friend. "The others found it a bit unfair with how accurate my aim was with the snowballs. So, I ended up opting out. Besides, I have little Elsa here to keep me company," she said, petting the beautiful pure-white reindeer.

"I see," said Nadira, looking over to the rowdy group that played among the snow drifts.

This gave Fayne a moment to take a good look at her friend. She knew the wizard was going through some tough times, and it was really beginning to show. Her once dark skin was beginning to pale, and her rich brown eyes were much darker than just the last time they had seen each other. She was beginning to be very concerned for her friend. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine," said Nadira, not looking back to Fayne. "Things have been changing…much quicker than anyone expected. There is certainly no going back now." She finally looked back to the elf. "And you? I'm surprised to find you out and partaking in celebrations while the Bird and the Beast wage war."

"As am I," said Fayne, shaking her head. "I would've been dragged here if I didn't decide to go willingly." She laughed as Calin fell into a pile snow after being pelted by a number of snowballs from the others. "As for the Bird and the Beast…" But what caught her attention made her stop.

At the west entrance of the crater, her keen sight noticed one of the war caravans headed for the crater. Two Bandosian caravans with their guards and diviners were making their way straight towards the celebrations. Without a word to Nadira, Fayne stood and started for the caravan with a strong sense of determination.

The participants of the snowball fight has stopped mid-fight, taking notice of the approaching caravan. Xandria also noticed Fayne heading straight for it. "Fayne, don't worry about them," she called to the elf. "They'll just pass through without bothering us."

But if Fayne heard her, then she chose to ignore her friend's words. She stepped up to the western entrance, blocking the way, and waited for the caravan to come to her. There was a moment where she thought that they weren't going to stop, but at the last moment the goblins reined the orges, coming to a complete stop before Fayne.

"Get out of way, puny human," grunted the goblin as the orge he rode came to a stop before Fayne. "Bandos need energy to get rid of pesky Bird."

"No," said Fayne, standing tall and not about to stand down from the group of Bandosians before her. "You can go around the crater; you will not be disturbing the festivities that are going on here."

One of the diviners stepped forward. "Taking that path will add miles to our journey, and add time that we do not have. We will not disrupt any of the going ons within the crater," she said, but saw that there was no persuading the elf. "Who are you to deny us access?"

"I am Fayne Glace, and I have been appointed World Guardian, which means stopping the caravans of Bandos and Armadyl. The people of Lumbridge have had to deal with the side effects of the battle between Saradomin and Zamorak, and will likely for a long time. I will not let you parade through here, reminding everyone of what had happened last time two gods went to war."

There was something about the elf that made the diviner hesitate, yet she wasn't sure what it was. But Nadira could see it. Strong tendrils of green magic rolled off of Fayne, and while everyone was watching the confrontation, Nadira was certain she was the only one seeing this power.

"Interesting," she said softly. "This is certainly one of those things Azzanadra wanted to know about." She crossed her arms before her chest and faded as she teleported away from the celebrations.

The standoff lasted a few more tense moments before the diviner took a step back. "Fine," she said, turning back to her caravan. "We will go around."

Fayne nodded. "And you be sure to spread the word to the rest of your caravans, telling them that the crater is off limits to all those involved in the war."

The caravan picked back up and started to make its way around the crater, much to their dismay. Fayne stood at the western entrance, watching the caravan until it disappeared around the edge of the crater. It was only then that she was able to relax.

A winter chill began to fall upon the crater as the sun set. The last of the celebrations began as a giant bon fire was built up and lit. Everyone sat around it, enjoying the warmth as they chatted and relaxed after a long, eventful day. Snow imps rummaged through the branches of the large Wintumber tree, lighting the candles dotted throughout the other decorations.

"So," said Calin, sitting down beside Fayne and passing her a goblet of mulled wine, "glad that you decided to come?"

The elf nodded and gladly accepted the goblet. "I'm glad that you managed to convince me to come," she said. "You were right, of course. This is exactly what I needed, this whole day has been a very refreshing change to everything that's been going on."

Calin smiled. "That it has been. Lumbridge has been a nice change from Burthrope, and not a troll in sight," he said with a laugh, then stopped as he spotted Kris, the troll who has helped with the Wizards' Banquet. "Well, no trolls trying to kill us."

The two friends laughed together and drank. But soon Fayne fell quiet as she watched the flickering of the flames.

"Honestly, Calin," said Fayne after a long silence had passed, "I thank you for this. Since Guthix's death, I've basically forgot how to live a life, how to live my life. I just wanted to do what I could to help everyone, but I'm just one person and I can't do everything. "

He nodded. "Yes, you are only one person, but you are not alone in all of this. The Guardians of Guthix and the Godless are on your side. Not only them, but there are troops in Burthrope who would not hesitate to aid you at a moment's notice. And I'm sure Lumbridge would send what help they can give, what with all the help you gave them," said Calin, and he smiled. "And you've got me by your side too, though I think the armies might be a bit more useful."

She smiled with him, but before she could reply a snow imp scurried across the strings of banners that stretched out above them. In its wake it left strands of mistletoe among the colorful banners. Calin watched as the imp hurried away, and didn't see as Fayne leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Together, with the rest of those gathered around the fire, enjoyed the rest of the holiday night. For at least one night, they were all able to at least able to forget the troubles of the world.

**So, it's almost Easter and the Easter event in RS has begun….so here's my Christmas story :D. Really though, I am sorry about having such a delay in getting this out. Problems on top of problems happened, not to mention a month solid of writer's block. But here it is. **

**This is also my brief introduction to Fayne for you guys. She's the World Guardian of my Runescape, and while this was abrupt, but there will be more of her story eventually.**

**Also, this is where I will be posting stories that have to do with any of the holiday events (as long as they inspire me to do so), so be sure to have this story on alert if you're interested in more to come. **

**Cheers. :)**


End file.
